


pretty like her

by gothflorist



Series: Fire Royals Slice of Life [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fire Nation Royal Family, Fluff, Izumi is precious, Mai (Avatar) is a Good Parent, Slice of Life, Zuko (Avatar) is a Good Parent, mai best mom, zuko is a big softy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:02:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29316021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothflorist/pseuds/gothflorist
Summary: One day, little Izumi asked Mai to give her a new hairstyle.
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Fire Royals Slice of Life [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2153391
Comments: 16
Kudos: 77





	pretty like her

**Author's Note:**

> I know stories with this premise do exist, but I really wanted to write one myself. This is inspired by a bunch of other fics I read where Izumi (or whatever variation of Mai & Zuko’s daughter depending on when it was written) has Mai’s hairstyle from when she was young. There is one in particular that I was inspired by, but for the life of me I cannot find it to link it. I will add it if I can find it, I’m so sorry. I noticed that oftentimes Fire Nation Royal Family fics centered around Maiko’s fam specifically focus mostly on Zuko and his relationship with Izumi. I have a huge Mai bias, and I think that she deserves to be written as a great parent as well.

Izumi was born with a head full of hair. It was thick, shiny, and jet black just like Mai’s, and like Zuko’s, it had a bit of an unruly nature-- a mind of its own sometimes. As she grew, her hair grew twice as fast. So, by the time Izumi was three years old, she had an impressive amount of luxurious hair. Anyone who looked at her parents weren’t surprised by this fact, since both the Fire Lord and Fire Lady had gorgeous hair and lots of it. 

Izumi had begged her mother to give her bangs, explaining that if both Mai and her beloved Auntie Kiyi had bangs, she simply must have them herself as well. 

Mai gave in and while she was trimming her own bangs, she plopped little Izumi on her lap and cut her the bangs she so badly wanted. It gave her perpetually messy hair a bit of a wild look, but Mai had to admit it made Izumi even cuter, if that was even possible. 

Izumi’s hair was usually done up in either a phoenix tail, so it was out of the way while she played in the gardens, or half up, half down with a top knot and her Crown Princess headpiece for special occasions. Though, one day, she asked Mai for something different. 

Like she did every morning, Izumi was sitting on her mother’s lap in front of the vanity in her parents' bedroom. Mai was brushing through her daughter’s dark, wavy hair gently while humming to herself quietly. Just before she can pull it up in a phoenix tail, Izumi turned around and clutched onto Mai’s hand. 

“Mommy, today I would like something different with my hair,” Izumi looked up at her mom while running her fingers through the long locks of hair Mai leaves hanging loose over shoulders from her hairstyle. 

Mai smiled at her sweetly, placing a soft kiss on her forehead, “Of course, Turtleduck. What do you have in mind?”

Izumi hummed in thought, tilting her head and tapping a finger on her chin, mimicking how Zuko looks when he’s thinking. Mai laughed quietly at the cartoonish display in front of her. 

“Can you do my hair like yours, mommy?”, Izumi asked with a shy smile and her hands clasped together, “Please!”

“Yes, of course I can, darling. Hmm, I just need to find something first.”

Mai got up, carrying Izumi, and walked towards her wardrobe. She reached into the back and pulled out a jewelry box, sleek and wooden with plum blossoms carefully carved onto the lid. Izumi looked curiously at the box, waiting impatiently for her to reveal its contents. Walking over to her bed, Mai sat down and Izumi climbed back onto her lap with her arms around her mother’s neck. Mai opened the box filled with things from her childhood and pulled out her maroon bun covers that she wore as a child. She let Izumi look through the rest of the items in the box as she brushed out her hair once again, running her fingers through her messy bangs. 

Mai put her hair up into two little buns adorned with the silk coverings. She secured them with little matching ribbons on either side tied into bows. When she was done, she carried her daughter over to the vanity once more to reveal her work. Izumi squealed in delight and threw her arms around Mai’s neck once more, thanking Mai and kissing her on the forehead on top of her bangs and then on each cheek. Mai did all that she could not to tear up right then and there at her baby’s sweet gesture. 

Zuko walked into the room at that time, having a short break in between meetings and found himself choked up seeing the precious scene between his wife and daughter. When Izumi pulled away from Mai, she noticed her father in the room and ran over to him, clinging to one of his legs as he made his way over to Mai to greet her with an embrace and a quick kiss. He then pried Izumi off his leg and picked her up into a fierce hug and placed a kiss on her rosy cheek. 

As Zuko bent down, Izumi wriggled herself free from her father’s arms, “Daddy, look! Mommy did my hair, do you like it? Do I look pretty like mommy?”

She did a little spin in place to show off Mai’s handy work as Zuko took in the sight before him. He was taken aback at just how much Izumi resembled Mai. She always had more of Mai’s features, her narrow eyes, sharp chin, and jet black shiny hair. Complete with that hairstyle, she looked like the spitting image of little Mai sitting under the shade of the big apple tree in the palace gardens on a sunny afternoon. 

He immediately started to tear up and cleared his throat to cover up what would’ve been a sob, kneeling down to her level and responding, “I think mommy did a great job with your hair. You look so cute, Turtleduck. So pretty.” 

She beamed at him, jumping up and down with joy from his compliment. Then, noticing the tears, Izumi ran over to him and wiped his tear-stained cheek with her little hand and gave him a sloppy kiss on his scarred cheek. Mai wanted to poke fun at Zuko’s teary-eyed reaction, but her own eyes were getting misty too. Izumi pulled both her parents in the tightest hug she could give two full grown adults with her tiny toddler arms. 

“I was thinking of asking mommy to do my hair like this more, but I don’t want daddy to be sad and cry everyday,” Izumi said with her voice a bit muffled from her face being pressed into Mai’s shoulder. 

Zuko sniffled and then laughed, a bright, warm sound. “I’m not crying because I’m sad, ‘Zumi, it’s just that you look so pretty.”

Izumi scrunched her nose and raised an eyebrow in such a Mai-like expression that Zuko thought he just might start crying again. She replied with a giggle, “That’s silly, daddy.”

Zuko shook his head, laughing once again and picked Izumi up, holding her close, “It’s not silly, Turtleduck, it’s true. You are so pretty.”

Izumi looked up at her dad, wrapping her arms around his neck, asking, “Pretty like mommy?”

Mai wiped a stray with her wide sleeves and locked eyes with Zuko, exchanging sweet and proud smiles. 

Zuko glanced back down at his daughter, responding, “Yes, Izumi, pretty like her.”

  
  



End file.
